The Schumer Scorecard

Sen. Charles Schumer covered a wide variety of topics during last week's visit to the D&C Editorial Board. Given his prominent role in the Democratic party and his liberal leanings, I was expecting to agree with very few of his positions. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that we are on the same page on a number of topics. For instance, I was surprised to learn that Schumer supports fracking in the counties that want fracking and that he too is frustrated with the Governor's silence. Like many on the right, the Senator believes that New York's high personal income and estate taxes are causing an exodus of residents to other states. At the meeting Schumer endorsed the charter school movement and even told us a success story about principals in one district giving up tenure in exchange for increased compensation. In the discussion of poverty, instead of leading with the necessity of more entitlement programs, he emphasized the importance of two parent households and of holding jobs as the surest path to fight poverty. And finally, he has been working across the aisle in the Senate endorsing a plan to secure our borders while moving illegals to the back of the line for citizenship as part of immigration reform.

Whereas the agreements surprised me, the disagreements did not. Schumer continues to support Obamacare, believing the law will prove beneficial without acknowledging the significant structural deficiencies that, in my opinion, will continue to drag the law down and hamper an economic recovery. As much as he emphasized the necessity of entry level jobs for the least educated and most impoverished, he did not acknowledge the negative ramifications that a nearly 50% raise in minimum wage now in consideration would have on job creation. Most concerning to me is that the Senator has championed the huge federal spending increases that have led to a 70% increase in national debt just since the 2008 elections, a debt that will severely hamper the opportunities for our children and grandchildren. And I was disappointed to hear him echo his party mantra and repeatedly demonizing conservative cable news and radio programming, as if we are all forced to tune into these outlets. It seems almost "Nixonian", especially given the ever expanding supply of news sources that we all have access to today.

Agree or disagree with him, I was struck by how much Senator Schumer appears to love what he does. He told us of his Monday/Friday test to determine happiness. If you wake up Monday morning and can hardly wait to get to work and then be just as excited on Friday afternoon to start the weekend with your family, you pass both tests and you are living right. He appears to be an A student on that score!